Summit acquires Mezrich's 'Rigged'

Novel explores oil trading on Wall Street

By MICHAEL FLEMING

'Rigged'

Summit Entertainment has acquired screen rights to Ben Mezrich's novel "Rigged."

The film will be produced by Trigger Street Productions principals Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti, who turned Mezrich's "Bringing Down the House" into the Spacey starrer "21," which will be released March 28 by Columbia Pictures.

Based on the true story of John D'Agostino, "Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, From Wall Street to Dubai" is about an Italian kid from Brooklyn who matriculates at Harvard and lands on the Merc Exchange. After establishing himself, the protagonist hooks up with another young trader and a mysterious Middle Easterner to engage in a dangerous scheme to revolutionize the oil trading industry.

"Every generation wants its 'Wall Street,' that relatable hero thrust into a world we want to know more about, and 'Rigged' has that," said Summit production prexy Erik Feig.

Brunetti has championed Mezrich and has Trigger Street developing movies from his books "Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions" and "Busting Vegas: The MIT Whiz Kid Who Brought the Casinos to Their Knees." "Ben has a knack for uncovering brilliant minds mastering different markets," Brunetti said.

Summit recently completed the Paul McGuigan-directed "Push" and is in production on the Catherine Hardwicke-directed "Twilight" and the Todd Graff-directed "Will." The Alex Proyas-directed thriller "Knowing" begins shooting late March.

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